Annie LXXXVIII: Packing

(Chronological index: Lasting Changes 4)

The Sylph Center went absolutely bonkers when Denise and Pet arrived.

Amelia had shared their story with Sam, in strictest confidence. Sam had to talk about it with someone, and Deliah, Pipkin and Butters were an amazingly rapt audience.

Deliah only shared it with a special few and Pipkin had no friends besides Butters.

Butters couldn't keep a secret if you paralyzed him with stonefish venom and wrapped him in duct tape. Usually he was lucky in that his disclosures were to trustworthy people.

But the bigger the secret, the harder he worked. He was compelled. If he had to drag himself across the floor by his lips to find someone to tell, he'd do so. He was helpless to stop himself from sharing.

So there might be a few people on the Night Watch with no language in common with their coworkers to hear about the Sylph That's Human Now, but that would be all.

And some of the plants in the Garden were disinterested in mammal gossip. But really, those are the only ones that didn't line the halls when the family returned.

The Fosters didn't really care about losing the secrecy, though. They fully intended on full disclosure, but they were hoping Samantha could help make it a useful revelation. Nothing to fan any flames of sylphobia or worse. They wanted it private only to control spin.

So no one outside of the Center was talking about it, but no one inside the Center would shut up about it.

Denise and Pet were on the floor of a conference room, answering questions and offering hope and accepting apologies from everyone that ever slighted Denise or hit on Pet.

Ray was sitting against the wall of his apartment, next to the door in the wainscotting. He'd packed all his things as the bed in this unit only barely supported one person. He'd suggested a hotel nearby, but Sam insisted he take a different room for now.

As it happened, the room they'd been given right after Denise sylphed was available. That had a King sized bed. He was thinking about that right now.

Annie was in the sylph apartment, packing. She had three boxes assembled in the living room. One was for things she wanted to keep close to hand in the carrier.

One was for things she would put in storage. The last was for what she considered trash. She had practiced a speech to avoid calling it that. "I didn't know if you guys wanted to save any of this....?"

She'd sorted her and Denise's clothes pretty quickly. They were of a similar shape, so they had similar sizes if their scales matched.

The jewelry box was almost entirely Annie and Pet's. Denise hadn't collected much after sylphing. Annie slid a drawer out of the slot.

Two silver collars rested on the black velvet. She remembered Ray buying those for her and Pet shortly after the wedding. One finger traced the filigree on the one that belonged to Pet.

Or had belonged. They'd never fit it on her again, even around her pinkie finger.

That's when Annie had a vision. No ghost communication, she saw the future and it was clear.

She stood with this same box on a table in a living room. Two children knelt by it and watched her lift a collar.

One, a boy, had Denise's red hair, and freckles the size of a decent sylph fist. The girl had Ray's hair, down to the annoying part he wore, diagonal across the center, but her nose could have been molded from Pet's face.

Annie lifted the collar. "And your mother Pet used to wear this."

"Something LIKE that," the girl insisted.

"No, May, THIS collar went around your mother's throat. And we were Leash Twins for an evening out."

"No WAY," Walter protested.

"Waaaaaaaaay," Annie insisted.

Back in the past, or 'reality,' Annie shook her head and carefully slid the drawer shut. "Tools of the oppressors," she said softly. She sniffed, hard, trying to clear her sinuses. "Allergies," she said to the empty room.

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The cowgirl costumes brought her to a complete halt. She'd forgotten those were in Pet's closet. The dumb bunny blond thought there was a risk Annie might hide or destroy one so they wouldn't be triplets at a reunion.

An argument had broken out in a Family Discussion like in the Agreement. Ray had listened to Pet's concerns, asked for Denise's input, and completely skipped Annie's chance to explain her plans.

She pulled the three hangers close together and hugged the stupid, neon-blue shirts with the ridiculous fringes and impossible skirts. God, these things were so annoying.

But touching one reminded her of Pet's smile unwrapping them. And of Denise's smile when Annie rode to the rescue and made sure Denise had a gift for Pet on the Birthday. Wearing one made her part of a trio, an angle of a triangle that made her life whole. Whole in a way that made them equals.

She'd grumped, but would never even rip off a single floppy fringe, for fuck's sake. Ray had seen that. Of course. Ray'd taken one look as she prepared to step out of her persona, seen her approach full disclosure, ....and preempted the prepared speech.

"Two of you girls want to keep the costumes, Annie," he'd said. "And for the sake of Pet's happiness, I think she'd feel better with all three in her room."

She'd nodded, said, 'Fine, whatever.' And handed it over to Pet's loving care. And she'd grumped when they had to wear them. And she'd grumped when Pet inspected them.

And she'd loved every moment in the damned clothes, every moment talking about them, complaining about them. And waiting for another special occasion to be declared.

Her part of the set was going to stay on the carrier with her, the rest in loving storage. She carried them out to place them in the boxes.

The real surprise, though, was finding another jewelry box in Pet's closet. She'd never seen it or suspected Pet owned one.

It was unlike Pet to hide anything away, especially jewelry. Annie stared at the box for a long time and finally opened one drawer.

There was part of a strip of plastic. Two strips. Strips in the colors of Denise's college. Pom-pom pieces?

Under those was a thumbnail picture printed out. It showed a blurry face that was probably Denise's. Or Ghandi. Under that was an empty sugar packet that described a zodiac. Pet's sign, surely.

Ribbons and some of the flower petals from the wedding filled the next drawer. And it held a straight pin that may have belonged to their wedding-dress tailor. How had Pet smuggled that out?

The bottom drawer was difficult to pull clear. It held a tightly folded piece of paper. Annie opened it up just enough to see that it was operating instructions.

That was so like Pet. Everyone else dropped the things in the trash, sure they could figure out a... A... Ah. An MP3 player. They never saved the instructions. Or they tore out the English part and threw out the Korean, Chinese, French, Klingon, Spanish...

Only Pet would fear that she had to keep these things close when Ray or Denise could explain every.....thing...she'd....

This was the MP3 player she and Ray had given Pet. At the party where she decided to share her birthday with Annie because the grumpy sylph had issues with her real one.

Pet hadn't been able to read back then.

She'd saved the instructions as a giant scrapbook entry. To remember Ray and Annie and their gift.

She folded it back down and shoved the drawer back in place. That jewelry box went into the 'keep close' one.

And the other two cowgirl costumes got piled on top of it.

"Allergies," she insisted.

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In the end she made one last sweep through the apartment. Everything was packed and tidy, ready for the staff to clean it up for future occupancy.

She stood at the top of the steps, looking at the three bedroom doors.

Annie knew that it would never be the same as before. She and Denise had a much stronger bond than they'd ever have formed without sharing a pocket. And Denny & Pet's bond was changed, too, the difference between package twine and a ship's hawser.

She had nothing to fear about not being the same size as her friends. No more than a fear Ray would one day notice she was short and stop loving her.

But they would never dogpile again. Pet would never climb into Annie's bed after a nightmare, or during a thunderstorm, or because she realized she'd gone two hours without giving salamander Denise permission to say what she wanted, or because... Whatever.

And if Denise needed strong shoulders to hold her up, that would be Pet or Ray.

She hugged herself for a moment. There were benefits. It wasn't all bleak in loss.

Annie reminded herself that the hugs the other Foster women could offer now came in two stories, with a basement and a two-car garage.

Not as intimate, maybe, but when two soft sequoias wrapped around you, and held you, and supported you like a steel-girder bridge, you knew you were safe.

Your whole body responded to the heartbeat of your captor. You couldn't begin to convince yourself you weren't loved, even if the bastard had been eating roasted garlic before he picked you up.

Pet had promised she'd never ever ever ever ever ever ever do anything like that. Annie had gotten one pinkie in a choke hold and forced her to forswear the oath.

"Self-denial is a choice people make AFTER they indulge!" she lectured. "I will NOT be the reason you don't try dishes with garlic, onion, peppers, hot sauce, that thing Ray does with the minced whatsit!"

Ray slapped the placement and called it a pin, then pried Annie clear. "How about we just make sure that one of the three of us has breath that won't make Annie swoon?" he suggested.

"You really do live in fear of her, don't you?" Denise said with a smile, running a finger down Annie's hair.

"She killed a cat for you, Denny." Pet has pointed out.

"I didn't say it was an unjustified fear," Denise replied.

"It took longer to pound enlightenment into my revered master's skull than some people's," Annie told Pet. Then got passed around and hugged by everyone.

Now she closed up the boxes and yanked on the strings tied to their handles.

Nothing happened.

"OI!" she shouted. Ray apologized and pulled the boxes through the door. Annie followed the last one.

Ray slid the boxes across the floor, then offered her a hand. She stepped into it, looking around the room as he lifted her to his face. One giant hand reached out to almost touch her cheek. She took that to mean there was a line of tears.

His gaze swept the room like hers had. "We are alone," he assured her.

She bent a head to rest on one knuckle. "Ray, would you mind if I stopped using the Sanc Dembukan carrier?"

"No, Annie. Um...Can I ask why?"

"Well, it's so big! It's... There's room for ten sylphs in there. I only used my room and usually didn't even sleep there. The rest will just collect clutter and if I do have a guest... I'll have to clean it."

"The horror!" he said in mock horror. She smiled, a tiny bit.

"Yeah, well, if we're down to one sylph, maybe I could... Maybe I should use something less bulky."

"Hmm," he hummed and nodded. "Very thoughtful of you. With three people to carry luggage and little sylph homes, not one, going smaller and less bulky makes...no sense, yeah," he said in agreeing tones. She started to protest.

"No, no, no," he said. "I agree. I understand fully. It's perfectly logical, not some sort of fear of being all alone in a carrier full of gang-of-three memories."

He lowered her to his chest and wrapped two soft pink hairy whales around her, pinning her to his breastbone. Her heartbeat skipped a bit faster to synch with his.

"No one would tell you that you have to sleep in the bed that you guys used to pile on like a litter of beautiful puppies," he said slowly. "We'll figure out a way to present it diplomatically to the others."

"We will?" she asked.

"Trust me," he said. "I'll convince Pet that you're not trying to excise memories of her."

"You won't use excise," she mumbled.

"Actually, Pet used that word yesterday," he said.

"When?" Annie raised her head and looked up.

"I'll tell you later," he said. He reached one hand over to pick up a box. "I'll put this stuff in the moving boxes. You open your gift."

"Gift?" She pushed on his chest to raise up. "Gift? No one said anything about a gift! Where is it?"

Ray rolled to his knees and stepped behind the bed. There was a present on the floor. Annie recognized Pet's careful, hesitant handwriting on the tag. "Annie," it said.

"Annie!" Annie said. "It says Annie!"

"It does, doesn't it?"

"Put me down, Lurch! There may be chocolate waiting!" She kicked and he carefully opened his pinning arm. She slid to his wrist and jumped to the ground.

The paper was wrapped with a Gwen Foster Patented Sylph Tab. A fold of the paper about the size of two Annie hands stuck out. Annie found that, grabbed, yanked and started to run.

It tore easily, then entire side falling off in one sheet.

It was her carrier. HER carrier. The ammo box Ray had found in an Army Navy Surplus store...Christ, was it that long ago? They'd been customizing it ever since.

Pet had figured out little Annie didn't want to be alone in the... She stood and stared.

"Check inside, he suggested," Ray said. Annie stepped to the little back porch and the door there.

A Toblerone bar big enough to spoon like a lover towered in the entryway. A slip of paper taped to it said, "Welcome home, Annie," in Denise's smooth penmanship.

Outside she heard Ray tearing the rest of the paper off. And the door opened. She heard the rest of the family walk into the room.

"Where's Annie?" Denise asked.

Pet squealed when she saw Ray was holding the paper of the now-unwrapped gift. "How does she like it?"

"I don't know," Ray said. "It's hard to tell, really. She's had some vicious allergies all morning.

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